Does Addiction Treatment Seem Like A Racket to You Too?

Does Addiction Treatment Seem Like A Racket to You Too?

There are millions of people all across America right now who think that something is amiss in the addiction treatment world and they are starving for something different; something better; something that actually makes sense. You might be one of these people. You aren’t sure what exactly is wrong out there, but you know that nothing the rehab system is doing seems to be helping. You know people who went to rehab and they all seem to be getting worse, not better; some have overdosed, some have died. The shows like Intervention and Celebrity Rehab are so off the charts crazy, that you cannot help but doubt that such therapies could ever possibly be helpful or beneficial. Maybe you’re trying to make sense of all of this rehab confusion by telling yourself “I’m not the professional, so what do I know?”

Well I’m here to tell you, you know a lot. Treatment, rehab, recovery and all that surrounds them, is completely devoid of common sense. There is no common sense in telling substance users they will never get better, and then expecting them to get better. There is no common sense in saying they have a disease and then punishing them for acting in the “diseased state.” (Can you imagine putting a cancer patient in jail for having a cancer relapse after a period of remission?!) There is no common sense in saying we need to spend more money on treatment, when the amount spent on treatment has more than doubled over the past five years and yet the rates of use are the highest we’ve ever seen as are the numbers of rehabs worldwide. Common sense tells us that “recovery” is an industry of providing a pseudo-medicinal solution to a manufactured sickness. When addiction is finally stripped of its costume as a legitimate illness, the common sense public will win the day, and the addict will have a clear path to shedding that label once and for all and moving on without rehab’s false promises and lifelong shackles. We don’t need more treatment for a fake illness – we need the truth!

Let’s face it, when a culture giant like Google is willing to let go of billions in revenue by distancing themselves from the cash cow of their bid-per-click advertising of treatment centers across the globe, you know something is terribly wrong with the treatment industry. This is the first big crack in the treatment industry’s armor and it’s making the fragile walls of their deception quake! Between all the “patient brokering” schemes (if you don’t know what this is, just Bing “rehab Florida shuffle” and be prepared to be horrified), massive health insurance fraud schemes, and questionable methods of treatment with lesser results than if you didn’t go to treatment, one must ask – why do we keep saying we “need more treatment”? Maybe the question should be – why do we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results?

Thirty years ago I was mandated to treatment at the age of 18 after being the driver in a DUI accident. Having grown up in a family steeped in treatment and AA, I knew the treatment system as a whole was a total sham. I’d grown up in and around it from my first memories, and then unfortunately, after a night of partying, I too was now a “part of the system.” Let me just jump ahead and say that the treatment experience was not a good one. Just as most individuals who are forced into the treatment system, (or for those who go voluntarily for that matter) I immediately felt the pressure of the “addiction professionals” trying to scare me into lifelong abstinence. The irony was, I’d already quit drinking and drugging months prior after my drunk driving mishap, and there was no need for me to be pushed and prodded into “behaving” and “getting over my denial.” I’d already moved on by the time the courts finally gave me the decree to “attend treatment or else.” I hadn’t drank or drugged in months by that point, and there was no need for me to be in attendance at the mental hospital turned clinic. But there I was, just another cog in the treatment mill being coerced to say and act in accordance with whatever the counselor had for me that day. But inside my mind, I knew better than to listen and take on their misconceived message of lifelong sickness and weakness. I rebelled within the confines of my mind and made the decision that once this nonsense was over and I got my license and my life back, I was going to build a better model for people.

Jump Forward 28 Years…

That model exists today, and it’s called The Freedom Model. It took three hard-earned decades to research and develop the counter point to, and the replacement for, treatment and recovery. If you want to be free of “addiction” (I have that in quotes because what you think addiction is, is also a misconceived idea hatched and promoted by the treatment industry), then it is time to unlearn the addiction and recovery myths that keep you trapped, reject the rehab scams and all of the fraud that stems from it, and embrace the idea of complete and total freedom.

Let me just get to the point. With the exception of detoxification clinics where one might go to physically detoxify from the habitual use of alcohol, benzodiazepines, or any other substances that actually create physical dependency characteristics when one uses them – there is no other type of “treatment” necessary to overcome a drinking or a drug problem.I want you to read that line again and let it sink in.

So you might be asking, “Why do I need The Freedom Model then?” Most don’t. But while there are millions who quietly reject the treatment industry lies and live their lives free of its guilt and shaming, there are others who have become lost and confused in the maze of the treatment industry’s lies. These are the people who have come to believe they are truly powerless. They are the multi-rehab goers, or the person who attends AA or NA meetings for months or years and finds themselves drinking and feeling horrible and guilty about it, or the person stuck in the “perpetual recovery” model, or people labeled as “chronic relapsers”, etc., etc. These are the people in need of The Freedom Model. If there were no confusion and myths surrounding addiction, then there would be no need for The Freedom Model to have been created or exist. The Freedom Model debunks all the myths that keep these people trapped.

But there are also millions who have not been affected so deeply by the treatment industry, but they, like me at 18, know something is amiss. They have not been brought to the altar of treatment at a profoundly vulnerable moment in their lives as so many others have been. And so, they do not need a Freedom Model to undo the damage and confusion that occurs there. If this is you, then know that your instincts are correct – rehabs are creating the very problems they claim to be helping solve. The methods are designed to create a repeat customer. The methods are control and coercion based. Your instincts are correct – this is not a disease, and people are not out of control. Let’s face it, people don’t get addicted to things they don’t like!

So if you have not been subjected to the treatment mill, or if you have, and you know it to be a sham, then count yourself as one of millions who are moving forward without the encumbrances of the “recovery lifestyle.” You are free, you are autonomous and powerful, and you are free to continue to choose your destiny; all of which is a heck of a lot better than being an “addict or alcoholic who is in recovery.”

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The St. Jude Retreats are regulated by the Department of Health and the Attorney General Charities Bureau. We are a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The Saint Jude Retreats are not religious facilities. The Saint Jude Retreats provides Cognitive Behavioral Learning programs and does not provide services requiring certification by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.